frogs out, peepers

Every year I note the night the peepers, frogs, come out. It's a very clear marker of spring, as all the frogs come out at once -- once one male frog starts singing for a mater, the others come right out and join in so it goes from quiet one night to loud the next night. It is loud right now.

Here are 7 years of first nights.

2014: April 6
2013: March 30
2012: March 12
2011: March 17
2010: March 19
2009: March 27
2008: April 1

day 39

We had a successful event at HATCH. Ollie went to a chess tournament and did okay but didn't metal. Lotta is back at ballet, her asthma gone.

day 36, 37 and 38

We went to Albany and did calligraphy, choir, Spanish, Java programming, women's history and nutrition. Beana, grandma, came and read her book, in progress, and worked with the kids on stories. We played a game where you write a sentence, then fold the paper and give a hint to the next person about what you said -- only one word -- and they continue the story. I don't have a picture of my story with Ollie but it turned out well -- and even made complete sense, remarkably. Leo went to Hawthorne Valley. I have stories by Lotta and Leo, but not scanned yet. 

day 35

Tuesday. April Fool's. I turned on the water to make coffee in the morning and someone had put a rubber band around the hose at the sink. I got all wet. Then I went to turn on the stove to make the coffee. Hard to do when there were no handles on the stove to turn on the gas. Ollie did his homework and went to consortium and we had the great April Fools' Day joke -- a great one played on us by our friends. But that cannot be revealed yet.